Stapper, Pieter Jansz (d. 1693)

Pieter Jansz Stapper (died 1693), was an elder of the Waterlander congregation of Wormer-Jisp, Dutch province of North Holland. Like many Waterlander ministers in North Holland, Stapper was averse to the progressive Collegiant ideas which were at this time very influential among the Dutch Mennonites, affecting both their way of thinking and their practice. He induced his own congregation and some others to join the conservative Zonists. He tried—and not in vain—to maintain the authority of the old Mennonite confessions of faith in the Waterlander congregations, in this point cooperating with Engel Arents van Dooregeest, an influential Waterlander leader. He and van Dooregeest, Jacob Jansz Mol, and others settled a quarrel which had arisen in the Wormerveer Waterlander congregation concerning the authority of the confessions. Stapper is particularly known for his initiative in drawing up a schedule according to which Waterlander preachers were to conduct regular services in the many vacant Waterlander pulpits.